The jagged, geometric landscape was broken by granite spires and craggy rocks. Jack wobbled uncertainly on the stones in the middle of the gloopy mud pool. He was surrounded by alligator creatures that were inching ever closer. Swooping wildly back and forth, Jack watched as the largest of the creatures encroached too close for comfort. Jack effortlessly leapt from the pool to the top of one of the rock protrusions.
"I've passed the gate," he told the big creature.
"Wrong, the whole thing is the gate," said the creature. Jumping even higher than Jack had, he reached the tallest rock. Jack started leaping from rock to rock, trying to outmaneuver the beast, but it was clear that from his high perch the creature would have an angle of attack no matter where Jack went.
Jack left and found a large clearing. A very tall being stood frozen in the middle, a spindly thing made of stony bone and gristle that reminded Jack of a giraffe. He grabbed a stringy rope, climbed to the giraffe's knee and removed a small, orange orb that was wedged in between the joint. The bone giraffe animated and started wobbling forward with his three remaining good legs.
Before Jack was able to try for another knee orb, two people appeared and the earth opened up in a whirlpool of dirt and void. At the center of the maelstrom, the expressionless head of a nemesis stared outward, its mouth open, inhaling. Sub-audible bass tones rumbled through the landscape as the earth and wind churned round and round, and Jack was anxious. Just as suddenly as it began, the vortex was plugged and the nemesis head disappeared underneath a reformed earth.
